* Before you continue I want to direct your attention to this news post

QUOTE ("Max")

Game immediately exits after start upThis is a problem that some people have been reporting for a while. Often I see these people say that since we haven't fixed the problem we don't care about. Not true! I wasn't able to reproduce this problem, so I scratched my head a lot and then guessed that it was due to the graphics card not supporting the 1280x800 resolution that the game starts up in by default. I fixed that in Build 156 (Beta) but I haven't seen much feedback on whether or not it's been fixed.

If you are still having this problem in Build 156, please e-mail me at max@unknownworlds.com.

The game looks incorrect in full screen mode but works in windowed modeThis are the types of issues that can be really tough to figure out, especially with a small team like ours. On a mega-million dollar main stream game you would have a big team devoted to just testing compatibility. We have something better, which is our community. If you run into a problem like this, first try updating your graphics drivers. If that doesn't fix it, run dxdiag.exe, save off the result and post it on Get Satisfaction. That will give me the information I need to figure out which hardware is acting up.

--- How to do a DXDIAG?

Here is a quick rundown or watch the video:

Click on your Windows Desktop Start menu.

In winXP you want to find "RUN", in Vista/7 you want the search bar at the bottom of the menu.

Type in DXDIAG and hit Enter

A window pops up, Either a Diagnostic will auto run or you need to click on a button: Run DxDiag now ~something similar to that.

When the progress bar is done, Click on the "Save All Information" button, Now your ready to mail that off to Max.

Document Covers:

Start up & Graphical Issues.

Game Stutters

My Server List is Empty

Can't Connect to server.

If you are having issues here are some things to try that have worked for some people.Lets get some useful info out the way to help you with applying some fixes or tweaks you may need to do:

Where is the NS2 Configuration & Log files?Firstly you are looking for Options.xml and there is different ways of finding it, Here are 2 of them:Depending on your Operating system, The place to start looking is either in:XP: C:\Documents & Settings\Vista/7 : C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Natural Selection 2

You also need to enable View hidden files because you are looking for a hidden folder "appdata" where you may need to goto "Roaming" folder and find "Natural Selection 2".

You could just type into the local address bar: %appdata%\Natural Selection 2

What can I do to try to get my game running?

I have written everything that may apply to you in the order you should try to do them first.

Community Solved issues--- Check these links out for confirmed fixes ---

You may want to change the the Quality Setting to Medium or Awful if the game has some glitches, If you cant load the game acess the config mentioned above.Some users have experienced issues that are indicators of being "Out of Video Memory".Here is a guide to what quality setting you should be using according to the Texture Memory available, 32bit systems have a memory mapping issue I will talk about below:

< 512 MB - Bloody Awful

512MB - 756MB - Medium

> 756MB - High

Windows 32Bit

The Common Problem32Bit systems can only Map a total combination of 4GB of System Dedicated RAM & Video RAM. : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605This means if you have 4GB of System RAM & a GPU with 1GB of Video RAM your 32Bit system will map less System RAM and some of your Video RAM not always all of it.

The SolutionThis is a problem for allgames and the work around provided by all game engiens is to load only what it needs & unload resources that are no longer in use in order to try and run smoothly with the reduction of available memory caused by the 32bit system or simply a lack of it installed to begin with.

* The Spark Engine still has lots of features and functions yet to be written into the engine including efficient memory management, this may stop graphical artifacting and may vastly lower stuttering as you move through a level depending on your system specs when it is fully implemented.If you notice artifacts in other games or stutters, this could be be your potential problem if you have a 32Bit system with 4GB Ram installed. The other cause is if you simply don't have enough Video Ram on your GPU in the first place for that game to run properly.

Here are some things to try (Let me know if it works) but at some stage you should consider buying a 64Bit system running a 64Bit OS.* Got 4GB of RAM & 1GB GPU?, You could remove 1GB of RAM so your system can try & map all your Video memory.Only do this if your a confident system builder, poor handling & storage of a chip and exposure to static will damage it.

* In your GPU settings panel, Lower the number of Pre-Rendered frames to 1 or 0 (Results vary on systems changing this setting up and down will get rid of or create problems like: Input Lag & Stuttering)

Can't run game or get past menu screen.

Next is a couple of things to try, some users have found that their update/download is corrupted or missing files, Steam has had fun recently doing this.

Check IntegritySteam has a Verification tool for game integrity and will replace old/miss matched/missing files.

Reinstall the gameYes because this really truly does work in some cases, Should Check Integrity actually fail try this just in case because something this silly can solve your problems.

GPU Drivers & Settings

The most obvious one to try as always repeated is make sure your drivers are up to date, otherwise:

Reset all configuration data back to Defaults. (This really has worked for some people.)

Turn off Catalyst A.I. (ATI Cards)

Disable Crossfire/SLI

Re-Install Drivers.Fully un-install the drivers, Then if you really want; Get someone with experience if you not got it your self to use Driver Sweeper to really clean old driver data and system entries that may cause any issues.

Some users believe that gameoverlay.exe causes some connection issues and an empty server list. This is Steams In-Game overlay.You can give disabling this steam feature a go by turning it off in Steam's Settings and see if it solves any related problems you may have:

*I can confirm that this may well be for many? users the cause for empty server lists and connections issues after trying this on a machine with this issue and getting an instant result after disabling the Steam Overlay.Do let me know if this works for you too! Thank You.

Windows/Other Firewalls

Ensure that NS2.exe is added to your windows firewall and allowed access to your network & internet (Same applies to any 3rd Party Firewall Applications you may be running)

Open Ports on your router

Make sure you open the following ports:TCP Ports27000-27100UDP Ports1200,27000-27100

Or follow any Half-life2, yes HL2 configuration guides because ns2 uses the same ports as source.Some HUBs have configurations built in for games, Enable Half-Life 2 & Half-Life.

Nice guide, but you forget about installing Physic on AMD/ATI card systems. Is more important than the DirectX. If you have your system up to date you don't need to mess with DirectX, but you do need to install Physic if you don't use an nVidia card.

use the following command to disable a majority of the flash however bare in mind that this does not turn it compleatly off so in game there is still a hit & a bigger hit once on a team.Enter the command in the main menu before you load into a game: r_flash false

Why should you not have to unblock ports that the built in firewall on your router is specificaly design to block by default untill someone tells it to open them?What is any game developer supposed to do about something entirely out of their control that has been done by your routers manufacturer or a software developers firewall you are running that blocks it?

Thats like, Why should I have to take the packaging off this book I bought from you to read it?It was applied to protect it so its not damaged before it gets into your hands.

A firewall on the router protects your computer from attacks and a vendor just goes "bugger it just block everything then the user can open the ports they need"...

For some reason, Donno why but its very nice of them to do it.. My BT HUB has a huge list of games that is kept up to date, I just add the game to the connected computers allowance list and thats it, the profile for that game opens all the ports for me.

If ports did not need to be opened vendors whould not provide API's for you to open them.. It's part of owning a PC having to do stuff like this sometimes.

Turning flash off wont give you a boost in gameplay where some flash calls are still made, it does not much for me either, only in the readyroom where nothing is called.Other than that there is lots of optimization work to be done, untill it's all finnished there maybe an apsect that slows things down more so than the flash does.Different things run at different speeds and eveything will run as fast as the slowest thing will let them, they have to find the slowest thing and speed it up untill that runs faster than the next slowest mechanic, then is the game running fast enought now? No, okay lets speed this up and see what happens next. Its a slow & difficult process.

Why should you not have to unblock ports that the built in firewall on your router is specificaly design to block by default untill someone tells it to open them?What is any game developer supposed to do about something entirely out of their control that has been done by your routers manufacturer or a software developers firewall you are running that blocks it?

Thats like, Why should I have to take the packaging off this book I bought from you to read it?It was applied to protect it so its not damaged before it gets into your hands.

A firewall on the router protects your computer from attacks and a vendor just goes "bugger it just block everything then the user can open the ports they need"...

For some reason, Donno why but its very nice of them to do it.. My BT HUB has a huge list of games that is kept up to date, I just add the game to the connected computers allowance list and thats it, the profile for that game opens all the ports for me.

If ports did not need to be opened vendors whould not provide API's for you to open them.. It's part of owning a PC having to do stuff like this sometimes.

Turning flash off wont give you a boost in gameplay where some flash calls are still made, it does not much for me either, only in the readyroom where nothing is called.Other than that there is lots of optimization work to be done, untill it's all finnished there maybe an apsect that slows things down more so than the flash does.Different things run at different speeds and eveything will run as fast as the slowest thing will let them, they have to find the slowest thing and speed it up untill that runs faster than the next slowest mechanic, then is the game running fast enought now? No, okay lets speed this up and see what happens next. Its a slow & difficult process.

I've played maybe 25-30 pc games in my life, probably 20 of those online multiplayer, I have NEVER once had to open a single port to get the game to work.(until ns2)

Game immediately exits after startupThis is a problem that some people have been reporting for a while. Often I see these people say that since we haven't fixed the problem we don't care about. Not true! I wasn't able to reproduce this problem, so I scratched my head a lot and then guessed that it was due to the graphics card not supporting the 1280x800 resolution that the game starts up in by default. I fixed that in Build 156 (Beta) but I haven't seen much feedback on whether or not it's been fixed.

I had this problem this week and it went away after installing another game that included the Visual C++ redistributable files.

my hardware is more than adequete, (unless a 500 some-odd megabyte card in the nvidia 8000 family isnt good enough), but i still ahve horrid lag, even when alone on my own server, ill try the flash false thing and get back here (ps. HALP?)

Hey guys, I've pre purchased this game a while back, and I've been waiting hopefully for the performance to improve. However, it's been several months and my game is still running terribly terribly slow, on a fairly good machine. I'm running the lowest graphics options and the game still runs very poorly.

I've updated my drivers, and did all the stuff that needs to be done according to this article, and it still doesn't work.

Have you got onboard sound and have you got the audio drivers for it installed, looks like you just got some Microsoft compatability stock drivers for your sound installed.Ineffeicint sound drivers may result in higher CPU usage and choke performance.

Also goto the nVidi control panel and set pre rendered frames to 0, try the game, then set to 5 and try again see if you notice any differance.

First of all: Thank you for that great holiday offer. Turned on my computer in the morning and only 5 minutes later a friend sent me the key. Problem is i get this message at game startup: "Couldn't initialize the physics system"So i cleaned my nvidia drivers, installed the latest (260.99 - which gave me some issues before) and tried again. Same result.

'Though my system is totally outdated, it meets the requirements stated in the faq. Is there a more up-to-date list of system requirements?

Nvidia PhysX only supports GPUs starting from the GeForce 8 seris. Seems i won't be able to play NS2 for a while. I am kinda broke! AMD Sempron 2800+ (2Ghz)XP Professional (5.1, build 2600)1 GB ramGeForce 6200 / 512 MB